Senate Democrats eye immigration blitz after recess
Senate Democrats eye immigration blitz after recess
03/12/2013
Neil Munro
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The Senate’s Democratic leaders may try to rush a nation-changing, economy-shaping immigration lawhttp://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/icon1.png though the Senate as soon as the Easter recess ends April 8, before the public can even read the bill, say GOP insiders.
The GOP’s concerns are fueled by the Senate judiciary committee’s failure to schedule any hearings so that senators, advocates and the public can analyze the draft bill, which is expected to be several hundred pages long.
The pending strategy was highlighted by a recent statement from GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham, the leading advocate for the bill, which could grant amnesty to at least 11 million low-skill immigrants, allow them to bring in their relatives, and also allow companies to bring in millions more workers.
“You don’t want to leave it hanging out for two weeks to get shot up” by opponents, Graham told the AP.
In 2006 and 2007, Graham’s efforts to pass a major rewrite failed once the public protested en mass.
So far, the Democrat-controlled Senate has scheduled no hearings on the bill, even though proponents say it will be released immediately after the recess.
Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions, the GOP’s lead opponent of the amnesty measure, slammed the committee’s fast-track strategy.
“In rushing the health carehttp://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/icon1.png bill to passage, Nancy Pelosi infamously said that ‘we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what’s in it,’” he said in a statement to The Daily Caller.
“Unfortunately, it appears these same tactics are being applied to the passage of a massive comprehensive immigrationhttp://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/icon1.png bill,” he said.
The committee has two immigration-related hearings next week, on top of two more hearings held last week and last month, said a committee aide. The committee also held three hearings during the last Congress, which “certainly inform the process as well,” said the aide.
Committee chairman “Senator [Patrick] Leahy has maintained that he will lead an open process when it comes to immigration reform, as is consistent with how he manages the committee, and looks forward to working with all its members on a comprehensive bill,” said the aide.
From 2005 to 2007, before and during the 2006 and 2007 immigration debates, the Senate held 12 hearings on the issue of immigration.
Pressed to explain if the committee plans to hold hearings into the draft bill, she referred TheDC to the immigration subcommittee.
That subcommittee is chaired by Sen. Chuck Schumer, the sharply partisan New York senator who is leading the Democrats’ immigration rewrite effort.
The most prominent Republican in the eight-member group writing the bill is Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.
He’s told AP that he isn’t rushing to complete the bill.
“I don’t know about timeframe. … I’d rather do it right than do it fast. …. I think we’re making good progress,” he said.
His office did not respond to a request from TheDC about whether he will demand hearings for the bill.
In 2006, the huge bill contained numerous complex proposals that provided many new opportunities for immigration lawyers.
It also include numerous controversial measures that spurred public opposition.
In 2007, for example, Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid introduced a 790-page bill, S.1639, that included a so-called “Z visa,” allowing nearly all illegal immigrantshttp://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/icon1.png in the country to get work permits.
On page 572, the bill called for requiring government officials to provide temporary work permits — dubbed probationary Z visas — within 24 hours to every applicant who claimed to be in the country when the bill was passed, for up to two years after passage of the law.
“No probationary benefits shall be issued to an alien until the alien has passed all appropriate background checks or the end of the next business day, whichever is sooner,” said the bill.
Other measures in the bill would provide taxpayer funded legal services and tuition payments to illegal immigrants, and allow gang members to satay if they signed a “renunciation of gang affiliation.”
Read more: Senate Democrats eye immigration blitz after recess | The Daily Caller
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy: Judiciary likely to take up immigration after recess
By David Sherfinski - The Washington Times
March 12, 2013, 12:09PM
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, Vermont Democrat and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Tuesday that after gun legislation, immigration will likely be on the committee’s docket following a two-week Easter break.
Due to a scheduling conflict, the committee did not take up Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s bill to ban so-called assault weapons and high-capacity magazines at its Tuesday meeting, but could do so Thursday.
Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican, said he’ll try to make the Thursday meeting but pointed out that debate on the Senate budget proposal is scheduled for the same time.
Mr. Leahy said he hopes the committee will be able to finish marking up Mrs. Feinstein’s bill sooner rather than later.
“Once we come back from recess, we’ll probably be looking at immigration,” he said at the close of Tuesday’s meeting.
“Let’s hope,” added Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat. Mr. Schumer is one of eight senators working to craft bipartisan legislation on immigration reform, another issue high on President Obama’s second-term priority list.
The Senate is scheduled to recess from March 25 to April 5.
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy: Judiciary likely to take up immigration after recess - Washington Times
